The ghost in the girls' bathroom
by Angel-of-Cake
Summary: Dominque Weasley loved ghosts. So when Teddy Lupin wants to win a bet concerning the existence of a particular one, she's the perfect reference point. That's how Teddy and Dom end up together in Moaning Myrtle's bathroom.  One-shot. Slight Dominique/Teddy


**A/N: This was written for misswhiteblack's "Well this is strange' challenge on the HPFC. Please review. **

**Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter**

Dominique Weasley loved ghosts.

She was fascinated by their cold, creeping mysteriousness and their white, translucent bodies and they way they were often hundreds of years old. They were a link to the past, a sort of living history.

None of her friends or cousins (and there were plenty of them) could understand her obsession. At Hogwarts, ghosts were just a part of everyday life, like moving pictures or Quidditch or moving staircases: something that might seem strange and amazing to Muggles but for wizards was just the norm.

"They're hundreds of years old!" Dom would exclaim if a friend or family member questioned her fixation. "They're dead!" They're alive! They're the _living dead_!" At this point, she would most likely be accused of reading too many Muggle novels which, fair enough, she probably did.

So, it would be safe to say that the question "Dom, you know a bit about ghosts, right?" was one's of Teddy Lupin's biggest understatements. To say that Dominique Weasley knew _a bit_ about ghosts was like saying that Lord Voldemort, the old evil wizard that Dom's Uncle Harry claimed to have killed (although she suspected that he was exaggerating slightly here), knew _a bit_ about dark magic or that Gryffindor's star chaser, Fred Weasley (who was incidentally one of Dom's many cousins), knew _a bit_ about Quidditch and so of course Dom reacted appropriately to Teddy's question.

"I know more than a bit, Teddy," she snorted, looking up at the face of her old friend/one-time crush/sister's boyfriend/almost cousin (although, Merlin knows, Dom didn't need any more of them), which was currently tanned and freckled (despite the fact that it was February) and surrounded with a cloud of purple hair. "Some people would even say that I know everything there is to know."

"So modest, aren't you, Dom?" Teddy laughed. "Anyway, you don't happen to know if it's true that there's a ghost in the first floor girls' bathroom, do you? I have a little bet going with some other boys in my dorm."

"Course there is."

"Ah, would you mind saying that in front of... Wait, did you say there _was_ a ghost?"

"Is," Dom corrected him. "There _is_ a ghost in the first floor girls' bathroom. Her name's Myrtle. She died in the 1940s, I think. She has glasses and..."

"You're making this up, aren't you, Dom? You're trying to wind me up."

"It's true!"

"Proof it!"

"Yeah, well, slight problem there, Teddy"

"See, I knew you were making it up!"

"I'm not!" Dom objected. "It's just that Myrtle's is a _girls_' bathroom and you..."

"Hey!" Teddy grinned as his features shifted to become smaller and rounder and his hair longer and blonder. "I'm a Metamorphmagus, remember? I can't be kept out that easily."

"Yeah, well, you still look like a boy, just an oddly feminine one," Dom sighed. "Just come with me, anyway. I know you won't shut up until you've seen her. It's your funeral."

It being a Saturday, the first floor corridor was empty. Dom grinned at Teddy as she pushed open the door to the girls' bathroom.

"Come on," she smirked, "I'll show you how wrong you are."

"No ghost. It was Teddy turn to smirk as he looked around the empty bathroom.

"Oh, please," Dom rolled her eyes. "You're going to give up that easily? Myrtle!" she began to call, "Myrtle, are you here?"

"Hello, Dominique."

Teddy gaped as the small, ghostly figure of Moaning Myrtle glided through the door of a nearby cubicle. Dom rolled her eyes. Everyone else told her that her ghost obsession was so weird and that ghosts were just a part of everyday life and then they acted as shocked as the first year Muggle-borns at the sight of one.

"I'm so glad you're here. No one else ever comes in here anymore and I get _so_ lonely, sometimes," Myrtle continued.

"Hi Myrtle," Dom replied. She turned to Teddy and whispered, "Told you so."

"Wait, wait," Myrtle gasped, looking at Teddy, "It's a boy! A boy in the girls' bathroom!"

"I'm not a boy," Teddy protested in a ridiculously fake squeaky voice that made Dom burst out laughing. "I'm a girl. It's obvious, isn't it?"

"I told you, didn't I?" said Dom, through her giggles. "You might be able to change your looks but you can't change your gender, Teddy."

"You can't have a boy in the girls' bathroom!" Myrtle objected. "I never liked boys. They're horrible creatures. They're..."

Teddy coughed pointedly. "Uh, I'm right here," he said, dropping the squeaky voice this time.

"Sorry," Myrtle apologised, in a very un-apologetic way. "You never told me you had a boyfriend, Dominique."

There was an uncomfortable pause.

"Um," Teddy began, "she's not my..."

"Teddy's not my _boyfriend_!" Dom laughed with enough emotion in her voice to make the atmosphere feel a little less awkward but not quite enough to stop the laugh from sounding forced. "We're just friends."

"Right," Teddy agreed.

"Well, bye then, Myrtle," Dom turned to leave.

"Oh, you're not leaving already, are you?" Myrtle moaned.

Dom hadn't meant to leave Myrtle alone so soon but she couldn't stand to be in the room any longer. She could still feel the word _boyfriend_ hanging awkwardly in the air. "I've got lots of, um, homework to do." It wasn't exactly a lie. She did; she just wasn't planning on doing any of it today. "I only really came to prove to Teddy you exist, you know."

"But..."

"Sorry," Dom muttered, slightly guiltily as she dragged Teddy out.

"Well, that was... strange," Dom admitted as they walked back down the first floor corridor, still trying to cover up the embarrassment that the Myrtle boyfriend assumption had caused.

"Yeah," Teddy agreed. "Now, I owe Tom Blake three galleons."


End file.
